Two days after being freed from two years of brutal captivity in Gaza, 22-year-old IDF tanker Matan Angrest shared his harrowing yet deeply inspiring story of survival and faith. Angrest, who was taken hostage on October 7, 2023, after a fierce battle in Nahal Oz, described how he endured the unimaginable through constant tefillah and unshakable emunah. “It was clear to me that I’d get out of captivity,” he said. “The place I was in was bombed, but I wasn’t hurt; it was a series of miracles.” Speaking on Wednesday from Ichilov Medical Center in Tel Aviv, where he is being treated for severe wounds, Matan shared his story with Tzili Schneider, Founder and CEO of the Kesher Yehudi organization, who gifted him a new pair of tefillin. Angrest was the only member of his tank crew to survive the explosion before being abducted and taken into Gaza. His mother, Anat, revealed that “Matan underwent very severe torture,” which included “severe burns on his right arm and fingers, harm to his vision, and unlivable conditions.” His father, Hagai, added: “They treated him like a captured soldier. His condition was very bad; they tortured him. He has a lot of injuries that occurred during the seven months after his abduction. He was taken from place to place, sometimes with seven other men in one pit, and he contended with isolation, starvation, and constant fear.” Even under those horrific circumstances, Matan refused to let go of his faith. Just a month after his abduction, still in shock, he asked for religious items to help him maintain his spiritual connection. “I insisted on putting on tefillin and getting a Sidur and Chumash,” he recalled. “I demanded from the captors to receive those things.” Remarkably, his captors complied — and a senior Hamas official personally provided him with the siddur. From then on, prayer became his lifeline. “As part of my routine, I prayed three times a day, morning, afternoon, and night,” Matan said. “It protected me, it gave me hope.” His words paint a portrait of extraordinary resilience — a young soldier whose courage, faith, and devotion sustained him through two years of unthinkable suffering, and who now stands as a living testament to the power of emunah and the miracles of Hashem.  | Read More The Yeshiva World